"Spread out! Follow the beast's blood, just don't touch it!" The head knight shouted to the few knights that followed him, the rest of them were occupied with putting out the fires at the castle. The troop of soldiers walked through the forest, groups of two spreading out from the main pack slightly at Boran's orders. The knight's head flicked between the ground and the sky, his grip tightening on his crossbow's wooden handle. The group of knights and guards continued through the forest, following the trail of oil-like blood on the ground. The plants around the trail had already begun to die, these beasts were a plague on the land. Boran sighed angrily, this attack was his fault, if only he had successfully killed all of them back then.They reached a small clearing in the woods, and everything became eerily quiet.
The four soldiers that had separated from the group grouped back up with the larger party. None of them found anything, but that didn't matter, the dragon had left a trail, and they had to continue following it. "Sir, are you sure we should keep following?" One of the guards was sitting on a large rock, panting slightly. They had been at this for an hour or two, even Boran was beginning to tire. But the stubborn knight refused to stop.
"We continue until we find the beast, Angel," Boran walked over to the guard, offering his hand for them to take. As the guard took his arm, everyone heard a crack come from the forest. One of the other guards, instinctively took a shot in the direction of the noise, and it was quickly followed by a high pitched squeak of pain. A knight closer to the noise inspected what it was and came back with a small lizard-like thing with wings that clearly didn't work in his hand. It was covered in dirt, clovers growing out from in between its scales.
"Luck dragon," The knight carrying the dragon smirked and tossed it to the one that shot it, "Too bad, Luce, seven years of bad luck." Lucy caught the creature and stared at it.
"Bad luck? Aren't these things supposed to bring luck? Not take it away."
"Unless you kill them, and only the ones with clovers bring good luck," The knight that had thrown Lucy the corpse gave her a playful smile, "Drink the blood, I hear it brings luck."
"Ew," The guard dropped the lizard on the ground, kicking it back into the forest, "No thanks."
"Enough," Boran sternly shouted into the air, getting the party's attention, "We have a dragon to kill," The head knight continued to follow the blood trail, closely followed by the group of soldiers. They continued to walk for another half hour, some losing their vigilance slightly, lowering the crossbows and casually talking. Even Boran let a yawn in a couple times, he really was getting too old for this, as soon as this dragon was dead he'd retire. The blood trail eventually led to a river, with a couple massive splinters of wood on the ground. End of the line.
"Looks like this is it, sir," Lucy stepped across stones that made a path across the river, "Looks like the thing got the bolt out, too." She knelt down, seeing grass patted down where it looked like someone sat. "Pretty smart for a beast I guess."
"Dragons aren't just beasts," Boran clipped his crossbow in his belt, "Some of them are intelligent, they're just evil." Lucy looked at Boran, her face showing clear doubt, "Do you doubt me, guard?"
"No!" She struggled up to salute the head knight, sputtering slightly, "Just⦠I find it hard to imagine all peoples of an intelligent species are evil."
"They're not people, guard," Boran began to walk away from the river, "Don't let me catch you feeling for the creatures again."
"Yes sirâ¦" Lucy quietly walked across the river, putting her crossbow on her hip as well. The troop of soldiers slowly and sadly walked back to the kingdom, all of them dreading telling the king the news of his daughter not being found. None of them were dreading it more than Boran himself, the king already doubted the head knight inherently, and he feared this mistake would cause all the trust that the man had built up to leave the king in an instant.
The group of knights and guards made it back to the outer kingdom, where the dragon's blood had spilled on the houses and streets. Many of the citizens of the kingdom were half-covered in glass-dragon blood, their eyes glazed over and staring at noting. "Guards, knights, help these poor souls. Wash them off, and don't get the blood on your skin." Boran's thoughts were overtaken by one singular thought, his son. He quickly walked through the streets, eyes scanning the houses for the Cobbe's. Smoke rose above the city as he approached the home of Jasmine's family. Half of their roof was covered in the oily blood. Shit. The head knight burst into the home, seeing the family gathered around Jasmine, who appeared to be on the floor. To their right was a constant dripping of the beast's blood. "Son," Boran knelt down next to the girl, pulling open her eyelids. Her pupils dilated wildly, but she was breathing. Alive, just under the blood's influence, "What happened?"
"Pa!" YaÄmur stared at his father, tears in his eyes, "What's wrong with her? Is Jasmine going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine, YaÄmur." Boran put a hand on his son's shoulder, squeezing it slightly, "I ask again, to any of you, what happened?"
"Sheâ¦" Hazel looked up at YaÄmur's father, "Saffron was thirsty, so she came in here to get some milk for her." The mother wiped her tears, sniffling, "When we suddenly heard her collapse, and when we ran in here she was sitting under there," She pointed at the blood that dripped from the ceiling, "The⦠whatever it is kept dripping on her face, falling into her mouth." The mother began to tear up again, "What's happening to my daughter, Boran?"
"I promise she'll be okay, ma'am, she'll just need time." Boran sat with the family, pulling them all away from the dripping blood. He held the hand of the two little ones. They sat there for a while, until the sun set. Boran got up, "I need to talk to the king. Stay with them son, it'll be okay. It will all be okay." He walked towards the door, hesitating as he stepped out. He didn't want to leave them alone like this. It wouldn't be permanent. He'd be back.
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Fenrir transferred Khora to his front paws, landing in the center of the half-breed village. As he set Khora down, Vogaix ran up to them. "Khora!" The princess struggled to stand, the human's ankle purple and swollen.
"V!" Khora fell into the half-human's hug, letting its leg hang above the ground, "I missed youâ¦" The princess looked back at Fenrir, before quickly bringing its attention back to Vogaix.
"I missed you too, princess," She stared at the princess, wings wrapped around the human. Her eyes landed on the swollen ankle, "Oh gods⦠are you okay?" The princess nodded, and was quickly carried towards Slepna's hill. Fenrir felt himself smiling as he lost himself in his memories.
"Fenrir!" Fenrir's father called out of their cave, "Marath!" His deep, draconic voice echoed throughout the forest. Fenrir crawled through the central tree's roots with his tiny body. He popped out from underneath the tree, tail wagging happily as he shook dirt out of his scales. Marath wasn't under there, but Xaviay wanted them, and angering him was not the good idea. Even Fenrir knew that, from his short time on earth.
"Marath!" Fenrir shouted into the forest, seemingly stretched out into darkness infinitely in front of him, "Xaviay is looking for us, where are you?" He snuck through the dense forest, listening for sounds of his sister, "The game is over, Marath," He coughed out a blip of fire, lighting up the shadow of the forest. Nothing.
"Fenrir!" He heard his sister's voice, cut off by a yelp. She was hurt. The small glass-dragon bounded through the forest, towards the noise that his sister had made, on the way there he ate some grass off the ground, letting it fall into his breath-sac. He burst into a small clearing, sunlight streaming through the forest roof and landing on his sister, with a small wooden pole sticking through her leg. Between his big sister and him was a strange bipedal figure, carrying a curved wooden stick with a string tied between the two ends. It was bent down and had a dagger in its hand, slowly approaching Marath's throat. The little dragon growled as its throat began to glow.
"Get your paws off of Marath!" He leapt towards the bipedal figure as it turned around. Before it could react to seeing another dragon, Fenrir bit the creature's leg, ripping off a chunk of its flesh. The creature gutturally yelled as it turned around, it seemed to say something as it looked at Fenrir. The smaller glass-dragon growled, preparing to blast the new creature with a bolt of flame. It lunged at Fenrir, knife quickly approaching the dragon's snout. He opened his mouth and shot a small blast of flame at the creature. It screamed again and dropped the knife as the fire spread across its arm in a beautiful display. The orange flames enveloped the cloth covering the hunter's clothes. It limped away towards the closest river, Fenrir huffed out some smoke, warning it that it shouldn't come back.
He turned towards Marath, whose breathing was very labored, blood poured from the wound on her thigh. The smaller dragon approached her, ripping the stick out of her thigh and licking the blood away. His wings softly flapped as he nudged her chest. She let out a labored breath, shaking as it left her lungs. Fenrir put his horns against hers, wrapping his neck around Marath's and squeezing tight. He'd get her back to the cave. He pushed his neck underneath her body, pushing her up on his back. The larger glass-dragon slightly gripped on to his body as she groaned in pain. Fenrir turned his neck towards her, licking her softly before he carefully carried her back to the cave.
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"Oh good gods, Fenrir," He heard a human's voice come from behind him, "That appears to be a horrible wound." The human approached him, inspecting the scales around his makeshift bandage. Fenrir twitched, growling it away.
"Don't touch me, human," He turned around and saw Morgan, her eyes filled with fear. She bowed in apology. Fenrir's mind began to clear, Morgan seemed to want the best for him, unlike the human who attacked Marath. "I apologizeâ¦"
"No, I understand," Morgan leaned on her cane, Fenrir noticed her hair appeared more gray than last he saw her, "I can take a look at it, if you'd likeâ¦" She humbly offered her services to the massive glass-dragon. Fenrir thought for a bit, laying down and ripping the blanket with his claw, letting Morgan see the massive wound on his back. The scales around the impact point were slightly cracked, and his flesh underneath was exposed. The scales would heal, in time. It would take slightly longer for a new scale to form around the actual wound, though. Dragons healed faster than humans so he would survive, but he did hate Boran even more now.
The ancient human softly put pressure on the wound, it had stopped bleeding for now but the dragon still winced when his scales shifted over his skin. "Carefulâ¦" Morgan laughed and began to walk back to the hill she called home.
"I'll be right back, Fenrir," She disappeared into the hill, the flap of fake dirt covering the door. The glass-dragon huffed some smoke. Why did this human care so much? It's not like any other human had⦠no. He shouldn't forget about Ame, the girl did give him his only heir, after all. Something felt⦠nice, about having someone to come back home to again. He had forgotten.
"Hi mister!" Lucy skipped up to Fenrir, hugging his snout as fully as she could, "How's the big dragon doing?" Her messy hair dripped with dirt and mud, a small eclectic assortment of plants grew from her back.
"Hello, child," Fenrir felt a smile creep onto his face, "I got hurt trying to rescue a princess from her tower."
"That must've hurt!" She rushed to his side, jumping up to try and get a look at his wound.
"Careful around there, child," His tail swept the ground, pushing the little half-human away from his wound, "I don't want to see what my blood would do to such a little thing." He stared at her, Lucy's face quickly fell, "Have you met the princess? I think you would likeâ¦" He paused, "Her."
"Woah! A real princess? Is it the one V talks about all the time?" Lucy's eyes lit up as Fenrir nodded. He laughed and pointed to Slepna's hill.
"They're in there," She immediately sprinted to the hill, her excited calls for Vogaix's attention were accompanied by the laughing of an old woman.
"Quite the ball of energy, isn't she?" Fenrir twisted his neck to see Morgan carrying more supplies than she should. He offered a claw to hold some of them for her. "Slepna found her in a luck-dragon nest. The poor girl was malnourished, just an infant. Her parents were nowhere to be found. Judging by her physiology, though." Morgan heaved some wrappings filled with some kind of spread onto Fenrir's paw, "She was birthed to a dragon. Which means her human parent is still out there somewhere." She walked up to his wound, sizing it up with various pieces of cloth she had hanging from her shoulder, "Not that I would trust the poor girl to someone whoâ¦" The woman paused, choosing her words carefully, "Would have a child with a luck-dragon."
"Not normal for you humans, I take it?" Fenrir sucked air through his teeth as Morgan pushed on his wound again, "I noticed most half-humans were with the more⦠intelligent dragons." Morgan smiled softly as she found a piece of cloth that fit over the wound.
"The word isâ¦" She thought for a bit as she picked up one of the wrappings, taking the spread and placing it on the cloth, "Intelligent would be the closest one, probably," Morgan softly placed the wet cloth on the wound. The cool sensation caused a strange noise to come out of Fenrir's throat, like a cat's purr mixed with a dragon's growl. He looked away from the human, his face would be blushing if it could.
"What is in that?" Morgan got the other wrapping out, unwrapping it and placing some thinner parchment pieces on the spread.
"The salve on the bandage?" Fenrir nodded, now curiously watching the woman, "A mix of emerald-dragon blood, stone-dragon blood, herbs, and some pig fat." She smirked slightly, her wrinkled skin conforming to her mouth's new position, "Did it feel good?" Fenrir turned away from the woman once again, hiding his embarrassment.
"Stone-dragon blood is harmful to humans, why do you have a mixture with it?" Stone dragon blood was often mixed into their breath-sac as it caused wounds in humans and other non-dragon species to heal over with impossible to maneuver scales.
"Do you see many humans around here?" She giggled, the noise of jubilation shifting into a labored cough. The glass-dragon looked at the elder human with slight worry. She patted a fourth parchment down, it stuck to his scales and the cloth. "Done, it should be healed in about half the time it'd normally take." She began to hobble away to her hill, when Fenrir stopped her.
"Morgan," She turned towards him, hands shaking on the cane slightly. He wanted to thank her, "I justâ¦" No. What was he thinking, thanking a human. She should be serving him hand and foot. Why should he thank her? "Keep my daughter safe."
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Khora arrived at Slepna's home, her arms wrapped around Vogaix's neck as her knight carried her to her friend's room. "Are you sure you're okay with me meeting your friends, V?" Vogaix tilted her head, a confused look on her face.
"Why wouldn't I be?" The knight placed Khora down on a makeshift bed. It was significantly harder than her bed at home. The princess sighed slightly.
"I justâ¦" She blushed, flicking her eyes away from Vogaix's gaze, "You never introduced me to them before. I figured you didn't wannaâ¦" She put the book down beside her, wiping the tears that were welling up in her eyes, "I thought you didn't trust me enough. That's what Alaric impliedâ¦" She quietly mumbled the last part, her voice covered up by a sniffle.
"Oh darlingâ¦" Vogaix pulled her into a hug, stroking the princesses' back with her claws, "I just didn't want any of the guards who were inevitably looking for you to find us. I promise it wasn't a trust problem." The knight licked her princesses' face, causing Khora to giggle, "Now what was that last bit?" Before Khora could answer, Slepna trotted into the room.
"Okayâ¦" The centaur-dragon stepped up to Khora, eyes flicking over her face, "This must be the princess I've heard so much about."
"Woah," Khora stared at the massive centaur-dragon, seeing her white scales and six legs, "Are you a centaur-dragon?"
"Half, apparently," She lifted up her shirt, revealing a small patch of humanoid skin, "Half centaur, half dragon. Some kind of multi-legged dragon too, I'm guessing." She smiled and knelt down, checking Khora's ankle. Her clawed hands pushed against the flesh, causing Khora to whimper in pain. "Oh, sorry," She examined Khora's other joints, none of which were injured.
"So⦠you're Slepna right?" The centaur-dragon nodded, digging through a cabinet for some supplies, "Vogaix has told me a lot about you. You're the supposed master alchemist that's helping her with her treatments?" Slepna laughed and gave the knight a playful look.
"Master is a bit of a stretch, I'm still learning." She put her claws on Khora's ankle again, softly feeling around, "But yes, I'm helping V with her transition. My blood is basically necessary, after all!" The centaur-dragon smiled as Vogaix nudged her with an embarrassed look on her face. Slepna handed a stick to the princess. "Bite down on this?"
"Why?" Khora held the stick up, it was carved into a pole, nearly none of the bark was left. Vogaix grabbed the princesses' wrist and guided it to her mouth. She shrugged and put the stick in her mouth. As soon as her teeth touched the wood, Slepna pushed on her ankle. The bone snapped into place, causing Khora to scream as she bit down on the stick, nearly cracking it. The centaur-dragon took the stick out of the princesses' mouth.
"I'm sorry about that," She used another stick and cloth to create a splint for Khora, "Are you okay?"
"I'm," The princess winced. She looked at her hand and realized it was gripping onto Vogaix's very tightly. She let go in embarrassment, "I'm fine. Thank you, Slepna." The half-dragon smiled, tying the splint to her ankle.
"Just wish I could've done it less painfully." The centaur-dragon spotted the book next to Khora and smiled. "I have someone you'd like to meet," She stopped at the door to her home, looking back at the pair, "You two enjoy your time together." The door shut, and the princess looked at her knight, blushing softly.
"I'm glad to see you again, V," Khora shyly spoke, her knight's gaze making her blush harder, "I know it's only been a few days but being apart from you feels like forever."
"I know, princess," Vogaix hugged her princess, squeezing tightly, "I miss you every minute we're apart." The two basked in each others presence for a short time before Vogaix pushed the princess off, staring at her. "What was the last thing you said? Before Slepna came in."
"Oh!" She sat herself up on the bed, taking Vogaix's claws into her hands, "Alaric. He told me about⦠you two. Said you didn't trust meâ¦"
"I-" Vogaix looked at the princess, confused, "How do you know Alaric? And what about us? He and I are just friends," She stroked her princesses' hair slowly, "I promise."
"He⦠he's my half-brother? Did you not know?" Khora pushed her head into Vogaix's hand, bathing in her knight's comforting touch. "He's my mom's son, apparently."
"He never mentioned being royalty. I-" Vogaix looked at the door, "I knew there was something fishy about him. Fenrir was rightâ¦"
"Fenrir� Is that the dragon?" Vogaix nodded, grabbing Khora's hands again.
"My father, apparently." The half-dragon let an awkward smile appear on her face.
"Yeah⦠I heard," Khora took a deep breath, squeezing on to her knight's hands, "You promise you and Alaric aren't⦠special to each other?"
"Him?" The half-dragon laughed, squeezing Khora's hands back, "You know I'm only into you, dearest. And I couldn't imagine dating him." She giggled and looked at Khora, who had begun to break into a smile herself.
"Thanks, V. For everything." The princess pulled Vogaix into a hug, squeezing her knight as much as she could.
"Are we interrupting something?" An old woman's voice caused Khora to open her eyes. Standing behind Vogaix, next to the towering white centaur-dragon was a little woman, white hair in a mess and hunched over on a cane. Her eyes were squinted to tightly to determine her eye color. "Lovely to meet you, Khora." She hobbled over to the princess, Vogaix let go of Khora and sat beside her on the bed. The old woman stuck out her hand, it was shaking, causing her wrinkled skin to shake. "Morgan, Morgan Millicent." She smiled a half-toothed smile.
"Wait," Khora's hand went to shake Morgan's as she looked at the book. "That Morgan?" The old woman nodded, looking at the book.
"Oh goodness, it's been forever since I saw this book. I thought the king had burnt them all after I left." She put a hand on the book, letting her fingers run over the grooves in the leather. "Where did you find this, child?"
"A hidden room in our libraryâ¦" The princess stared at Morgan in awe. She figured she was long dead, this book was written nearly a hundred years ago. How was she alive? "How are you alive? I have so many questions."
"Take your time, child." She gave a soft laugh, it reminded her of her mother's, "This must be little Leila's copy. That girl always knew how to hide her things."
"Leila likeâ¦" The princess paused, her memories going back to sitting in her mother's lap, a picture book opened in front of them. "Like the queen, Leila?"
"I think I heard the king married her, yes. That'd make her your mother, wouldn't it?" Morgan laughed, "Come, child," The woman handed Khora her walking stick, "We have a lot to discuss, I imagine."